South Short on Sympathy for Detroit's Woes

West Point, Georgia, looks a lot like Main Street USA but its people aren't overflowing with pity for the struggling American auto industry, the Los Angeles Times reports. Kia Motors is building a plant in the town and residents are looking forward to new jobs and learning to love Korean barbecue. Detroit, they say, had its chance and blew it.

"The foreign cars took the lead, and they deserve it," said one woman, declaring that she was fed up with Detroit's fat labor contracts, its arrogant CEOs, and her own gas-guzzling Cadillac. Opposition to a Detroit bailout runs high in the town, a sentiment echoed by many across the South, where most workers are nonunion and local officials compete to lure foreign auto companies. More than 43,000 people have applied for Kia's 2,500 openings.

FDA Sets Safe Levels for Melamine in Baby Formula

Less than two months after federal food regulators said they couldn’t set a safety threshold for melamine in baby formula, they announced a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in US-made batches of the product. FDA officials yesterday set a threshold of one part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the formulas are safe.

The setting of the standard, which matches those in China and Canada, comes days after the AP reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major US manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The amounts found in US-made formula are far below the amounts that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill in China.

Job-Hunting Execs Find It Tight at the Top

Laid-off execs scrambling to find new six-figure salaries are facing fierce competition, Time reports. Thousands of high-end white-collar jobs have vanished recently, and many more are expected to go. Some top-level vacancies are still appearing, as execs retire or change jobs, but companies looking to fill their most powerful positions are finding it's definitely an employer's market.

As the glut of talent grows, execs are calling in contacts, scouring job sites, hiring résumé writers—and increasingly taking whatever they can get. "When those looking for high-end jobs are struggling, they become amazingly tolerant," the chief of one research firm said. "They'll take work for which they're underpaid and overqualified. In that respect, they're just like everyone else."

Bad Bosses May Be Deadly

Your incompetent boss could give you a heart attack, the Boston Globe reports. New research shows workers whose bosses are inconsiderate, uncommunicative and poor advocates for their employees are about 60% more likely to suffer a heart attack or other serious cardiac issues. Employees whose bosses have solid leadership skills are 40% less likely to develop heart problems, according to the study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The stress of working for lousy bosses can crank up blood pressure and trigger the release of hormones that induce blot clots and harden arteries, according to researchers. The bad-boss factor caused more health problems for employees than smoking, lack of exercise, high cholesterol, or being overweight. At least one cardiologist said the study has prompted him to ask patients more questions about their work environment.

One Month, 50K Words: Writers Race to Finish Novels

Aspiring novelists are packing coffee shops in the Twin Cities and elsewhere as the frenzy of National Novel Writing Month heats up, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Founded roughly a decade ago, “Nanowrimo” challenges writers to conquer procrastination and get 50,000 words down during November. The emphasis, say the organizers, is on quantity, not quality—there’s always time to edit once the month ends.

“Writing is such a solitary art, and Nanowrimo makes it a sport that you can do with a team,” says one participant. The word count requires would-be authors to average 1,667 words a day, but for some the number isn’t the hard part: “I really go into it intending to have a lot of violence, but I have hard time hurting my characters,” said one writer.

Credit Relief Flows Slowly—When It Flows at All

With hundreds of billions of dollars pumping into the calcified credit markets, many struggling Americans are expecting to see some relief, but many will be disappointed, the New York Times reports. Banks continue to stiffen loan eligibility requirements even as strapped consumers face deteriorating credit scores, and whole categories of applicants for mortgages and car or student loans simply won't qualify.

"There are fundamental elements of qualifications for loans that will inhibit the ability of this program to have any meaningful, significant impact," says LendingTree's chief economist. Even as plummeting home values are eroding refi prospects, the federal relief funds—intended partly to aid investors who buy and trade packaged loans—could take months to reach the credit card and small business loan markets.

BlackBerry Storm: It's a Dud

BlackBerry has a knack for simple phone names, and the Storm couldn’t be more spot-on, David Pogue writes in the New York Times. Stormy it is: dark, sodden, and unpredictable. The feature-packed phone is shrouded in a “marathon of frustration”—keys that don't do anything, scrolling that’s too slow, and delays all around. And the signature on-screen keyboard? “A wasted software-design opportunity.”

Virtual keys pack great potential for buttons with layers of uses that evolve as you type. Except they don’t, and in some programs only a hard press yields results. “It’s too much work, like using a manual typewriter,” writes Pogue. Text comes out “slow and typo-ridden,” particularly when using the vertical keyboard, which is, yes, different than the horizontal one. No Wifi is the sour icing on this cake.